Pastor's PenJune 2017by Pastor Alan Darby

Dear Friends,

By now, I’m sure many or most of you have heard the news that we have to close St. Paul’s Christian School at the end of this school term. It is with deep sadness and sincere regret, after a great deal of prayer and deliberation, that our school board concluded that we no longer have the enrollment or the resources to remain open. We have done a considerable amount of inquiry and investigation into keeping our preschool classes open but, according to New Jersey’s state codes and regulations, without the elementary school, we cannot operate a preschool without proper licensing. Unfortunately, we would need to make some significant changes to our building to meet these codes before applying for a license, and we cannot announce and advertise a preschool without this license.

We certainly and wholeheartedly celebrate St. Paul’s Christian School’s wonderful history and impact on students and families over the years. We are proud and blessed to have been able to provide such a great ministry to our church and community as long as we have. We are grateful for the wonderful and dedicated teachers and staff that have served Christ and our students so well during their time with the school. It is unfortunate that we are unable to sustain this great work going forward. In order to give our teachers and remaining families time to look elsewhere for God’s purposes for their work and study, we determined that it was time to make this decision.

We will continue to consider the possibilities of restarting and opening a licensed Christian preschool in September of 2018. We would then need to present such proposals to our church’s administrative board and trustees. As there is a lot of grieving and sadness on many levels with the loss of our school ministry, I find great comfort in the Scriptures. Jeremiah, known and the “weeping prophet” because he was called to minister in the devastating times of God’s people at the time of their exile to Babylon, wrote a comforting, hopeful word, in the midst of his song of lament (Lamentations 3: 20-24). “My soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning for great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him.” Let us find comfort and strength in these words as well.